Off-line Notice
 

Dear Eratosphereans,

Be informed that Eratosphere will be going offline a little later today - for maintenance/migration, initial phase - at about 8 pm PDT. I expect it to remain off for several hours, and how long will depend on the speed of systems and processors involved. Sorry for the relatively short notice.

Cheers ... and thank you all for your support!
...Alex

System has been brought back up for now. Migration software appears buggy so the operation will resume once I resolve the problem - hopefully with the help of the company that develops it, apparently charging a hefty fee for what appears to be a substandard tool!

Anyhow, stay tuned for a follow-up offline notice if and when the above problem is resolved ... if not, I'd really really hate to carry out the extremely tedious manual migration, and the attendant prolonged offline time period!

Cheers,
...Alex

After a lot of frustrating testing and debugging of the server setup, I'm ready for another go at it. So, this is another offline notice for today, around 7pm PDT.

Cheers,
...Alex

Even though it feels like I'm talking to myself in this thread, I'm reporting that last night's follow-up attempt at carrying out the migration failed as before, except that it's looking like the problem is with the service provider's network connection. They've been into it and think it's resolved, so I'll give it another go tonight, around 8 PDT, and the site will be unavailable then.

Cheers,
...Alex

Alex,

Not to worry, lots of people are reading the thread... and keeping their fingers crossed for you! I know how frustrating these things can get... things that should just work sometimes don't, and looking under the hood (or under the false floor of the server room) simply reveals a confusing mass of spaghetti posing as fiber-optic cable!

Thanks for sticking with the problem!

Best,

Bill

Thanks, Bill. And for update, last night's attempt after the hosting company's supposed fix failed again just as before. Well, at least, they're now acknowledging connectivity problem with their equipment and connection and are "investigating". Hopefully, they'll provide a dependable system when they give the OK to try again. And it's good I'm finding the equipment problem now instead of when everything is loaded and running live on the new system.

Cheers,
...Alex

I figure these don't require comment, but I look for these announcements. Thanks Alex

Thanks, Cyn!

And there'll be another attempt tonight - the service provider thinks they've isolated and resolved the problem. So, the Sphere will be offline today, around 9pm PDT.

Thank you all again all again for your support!

Cheers,
...Alex

Last night's attempt was more of the same mode of failure. Since then, the service provider has again looked at things and again, think it's OK to try again. So, unfortunately, the saga continues and expect another offline event tonight, at around 9pm PDT.

Cheers,
...Alex

Didn't take last night either - what's new. But there are more instructions for more things to try by the service and hardware provider. So, although it's a short notice, expect another downtime tonight, and soon, in the next several minutes from this post's timestamp.

Cheers,
...Alex

Still didn't work last night. The service provider seems to have run out of ideas on how to resolve their software/hardware problem, so they've escalated to the hosting software vendor - the epicenter of the failure. So, I'm back to a waiting pattern until they complete their investigation, and hopefully, resolve the problem. That means there'll be no offline notices for the next few days until they make some diagnostic progress.

Cheers,
...Alex

I didn't expect the software vendor's support technician will come up with a resolution this quickly, but they think they have one. That means there'll be another offline event tonight, around 10pm PDT while I attempt the migration again.

Cheers,
...Alex

Thanks for letting us know, Alex. Good luck.

Chris

Chris, that happened two days ago. Were you ever in the Boy Scouts?
Yoke, yoke, yoke.

It's all magic to me.

Alas, would that this were true! We could all just perform some ennie-meanie-chili-beanie chant, and the deed would be done. The reality is that it's work: frustrating, mind-bending, discouraging, soul-sapping work.

An example: I spent most of yesterday building a website for another writer. At one point, I added a new text editor to the site. Did everything right, couldn't see the addition. Spent an hour working on the settings, reloading the editor, reinstalling, etc. While I was trying yet another solution, Kate pulled up the site, and there was the new editor. My machine had been holding the old one in the cache. The other writer's machine is still holding the old one, and as he's several states away, I can't clear it for him.

So I have real sympathy, and even empathy, for what Alex is going through. He deserves a medal, or at least a bottle of scotch. The good stuff: single malt, cask strength, aged for 22 years. Maybe even a case of it... ;)

Best,

Bill

Or a donation. :)

Bill & Janice,

Actually I did just donate recently, now that you mention it. I hope I wasn't misunderstood with my magic comment. All I meant to say is that I am all thumbs when it comes to anything mechanical, let alone electrical, or digital. Shame really, since my father was an engineer. It skipped right over me and went into my oldest boy. He can figure out anything, intuitively. If it has moving parts, plugs, or wires, he'll master it.

I'd be happy to send Mr. Pepple a case of scotch. In fact, I might even like to help him drink it!

Peace,
Bill (the other Bill; no, not that one; no, not him either; yeah, that one.)

:p

Thanks Chris, Bill, Janice and William ... your support is much appreciated!

And now for today's update, and you can probably guess what it is and what's coming up. Yes, the migration is still not going as I'd expected. What's more even the software manufacturer that the hosting provider called in couldn't make it work right. But they did figure out something somewhat helpful -- the automation is essentially broken, and I have to resort to the dreaded manual migration! So, tonight's the night for another try, with the elbow grease option -- and the site will be offline tonight at around 9pm PDT ... hopefully with some success to report this time!

Cheers,
...Alex

No, it still hadn't been completed. The software manufacturer/developer (whom the hosting company called in to solve the problem), are still investigating and their support people (the ones who puzzle out and reconfigure the product) have escalated to their developers (the ones who actually coded and made the product). The developers think they've figured it out, so I'll try again tonight. So, expect the site to be offline today at around 8pm PDT.

Cheers,
...Alex

sheesh Alex
so much trouble you go to for us all
can we bring you some good comforting chicken soup maybe?

Hey Seree,

Thanks for the words of encouragement and support. Maybe, it's your offer of soup that did it ... yes, I think I've done it! But, I won't celebrate too soon until I know that everything is working as expected on the new, migrated environment. Just to make sure everyone sees the alert for potential migration glitches, I'm going to start a new, and hopefully more visible thread right after this.

Cheers,
...Alex